Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan found new target for blame in the recurring accusations over why the “normalization” of Armenian-Turkish relations has stalled.

On Sunday (January 31) the prime minister announced on Turkish TRT-1 TV that the OSCE Minsk Group member countries (Russia, USA, and France), are negligent in efforts to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which in its turn hinders the process of rapprochement.

“If Russia, France and the USA were more serious about the issue during the recent 20 years, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia would not face the current problems,” the Turkish official said.

According to Erdogan, the OSCE Minsk Group should have been more firm in its principles.

“They should have said that Armenia ‘occupied’ territories, and the UN has proven that. After the occupation, it seemed no problem should have been left. However, the US, Russia and France took a wait-and-see position,” Erdogan said.

A day before Erdogan made the statement, President of Turkey Abdullah Gul said that he highly appreciated Russia’s support in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, during a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Erdogan, referring to the protocols on normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, stated that Armenia had not been taken efforts seriously.

“The decision of the Constitutional Court of Armenia made an impression among us that the Armenian side is eager to review them (the protocols). I suppose that this way (President) Serzh Sargsyan is trying to strengthen his positions within the country (Armenia),” Erdogan said insisting that “Ankara has passed the protocols to the parliament without amendments, and our demand for ratifying the protocols is only one – to liberate the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”

Erdogan’s recurrent statement has been left without an official response yet; however, a number of Armenian National Assembly MPs have already expressed their indignation.

“(Erdogan) has already overstepped the limits. In fact, such a behavior of Erdogan harms his own country,” Republican MP Galust Sahakyan told ArmeniaNow.

Eduard Sharmazanov, Press Secretary of the Republican Party of Armenia, believes that Turkey has serious intentions to be involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and “they (Turks) believe that if they speak a lot, they will manage to become a Minsk Group member, but it is impossible,” Sharmazanov says.